


how It Feels to take A fall

by edgeoflights



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, BAMF Melinda May, Empath, Episode Tag, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Skye | Daisy Johnson, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Multi, Spoilers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, dousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edgeoflights/pseuds/edgeoflights
Summary: What if Kora couldn't save Daisy?What if somebody elsecould?
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Melinda May, Phil Coulson & Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson/Melinda May, Skye | Daisy Johnson & Agents of SHIELD Team, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 27
Kudos: 243





	how It Feels to take A fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bad_ash10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_ash10/gifts).



> title from 'Icarus' by Bastille

Kora held her glowing hands over Daisy, trying to save her sister's life, as the team watched on, terrified. The tension in the room was palpable; a weight on all of them like a blanket, ready to be lifted off of them to make way for joy.

Daisy’s face was so… blue, and still. Her eyelids were half-lidded; her face in a serene expression. Melinda had never realized how much the world could feel like it was crashing around her.

Nothing was happening.

_Why was nothing happening?_

“What’s taking so long?” Mack demanded, kneeling next to Kora. 

The young girl scrunched her face up in concentration, gritting her teeth. “I don’t… I don’t _know_. She’s supposed to be waking up.”

“She’s _supposed_ to be waking up? What- Why isn’t she?” Sousa asked, paling.

Kora looked up at May, her eyes wide and brimming with panicked tears. “I don’t- I can’t-”

“ _Kora_.” May stared at her, her chest heaving as she struggled to get air that was once vital but now suffocating. She could _feel_ Kora- and the girl felt helpless.

She couldn’t do anything.

"Daisy, c'mon," Kora cried. "I can't lose both of you! Not to _him_!"

“No, _no, no_ ,” Fitz muttered as he put his hands on his neck and stared, horrified, at the lifeless body on the floor of the zephyr. “Tha- tha’s not supposed to happen.”

“What was supposed to happen, Fitz!” May demanded, her anger and pain feeding off of the others in the room and being multiplied by her own feelings.

“That’s why it was our last mission as a team,” Jemma gasped, her face reddening as she breached herself onto one of the cargo area’s chairs. “Without Daisy… We aren’t a full team.”

“No, that can’t be it,” Sousa protested, moving forwards and kneeling above Daisy's head, cradling her into his arms. The despair rolled off of him in waves as he kept repeating something. Whispering, again and again...

" _You promised you'd come back_ ," he was saying.

_You promised you'd come back._

She always came back. From Afterlife, from Hive, from her vigilante spree and then from the Kree levels...

This time she couldn't.

Jemma broke into a sob and dove into Fitz's arms, who was shaking as well. "She was there at the start..."

Nobody tried to finish her thought.

"Daisy gave her life to defeat Nathaniel Malick," Phil spoke up, his voice gravelly. "She sacrificed herself to save us all." He had moved away a little and was sitting with his knees bent, staring at the wall.

Melinda had never thought synthetic eyes could hold so much pain.

She had been wrong.

"She's _dead_ ," Jemma cried. "She's dead, and she'll never get to m-meet Alya, who we _named_ after her and-" she broke into sobs, burying her face into Fitz's chest. "Alya will never meet Daisy."

Everything started to blur. Someone was sobbing, somebody else was trying to move the body, but Melinda... She stood there, shock still. Feeling and yet unfeeling at the same time. Somebody put their hand on her shoulder, and she didn't flinch away at the new wave of emotions. She didn't care. She couldn't feel herself, but she could still think logically.

Logically, Melinda thought she was partly to blame.

Daisy was yet another girl she had failed. 

Daisy had been entrusted to her; Melinda was supposed to teach her to defend herself. To make the right call, no matter what. And that lesson had cost Daisy her life.

Goddamn it, why did she have to be so... selfless? 

Why did somebody so young have to give up everything?

Melinda remembered Skye; young, innocent, excitable Skye. The one who was too tactile for her own good and only wished for a family. She got that family, and then she lost it.

Daisy had finally been getting a chance to start over with Sousa. And now she'd never be able to. They would all get a chance to move on, make something out of their lives, something away from Shield. Daisy, the one who loved them all so deeply and hurt so much, would not. 

It should've been her. She couldn't feel anything; she could only feed off of others, like Katya. She was a _parasite_ of emotions. 

Melinda couldn't even feel any of her own emotions about the woman who she'd considered a daughter's death. She was disgusted with herself, that she couldn't conjure up anything. Was she any more human than the LMD Coulson? 

Melinda looked on, helpless. She was cursed with this power that kept her from voicing what she felt about Daisy. Daisy died after weeks of Melinda distancing herself from Daisy. Daisy died feeling pushed away.

She could do nothing. These stupid empath powers, ironically enough, brought nothing but pain...

"Phil."

Nobody heard her, too busy looking at Daisy and mourning their youngest team member.

"Phil," Melinda repeated again, with urgency. 

He looked up at her, his face shifting from despair to realization. They'd known each other for long enough to tell what the other was thinking. "Melinda?"

She moved forwards and knelt next to Daisy. "I need your hands," She said to the team. They stared at her, bewildered. "I don't know how much time we have. Give me your hands," she demanded. 

Sousa was the first to thrust his hand over Daisy's body towards May, followed by Mack, then the rest of the team. When Coulson didn't move, she looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Even though she couldn't feel anything from him, she wanted his support for what she was about to do.

Melinda placed her hand over everybody else's, clasping it so that she had contact with all six of them. The sudden influx of strong emotions had her choking for air, before she felt somebody supporting her shoulders with firm hands.

Phil.

She took a deep breath, using her contact with his empty input as an anchor, closing her eyes and letting the pure love from the team shine above the rest of the pain and loss. She held on tight to that, channeling it so that the six different agents' love started merging with each other, creating a force so strong it started to push on every fiber of her being. Before it could tear her apart, Melinda put her other hand on Daisy's chest.

The emotions bled away from her and everything turned into and off grey. Nothing happened for a moment as Melinda kept her eyes closed, not daring to hope-

"Hnnnnnnng," Daisy groaned from underneath the tackle pile that was the team above her. "Hi guys, I'm down here. Please don't suffocate me."

Melinda smiled widely as everybody scrambled to get off of the woman. She opened her eyes and looked down, seeing Daisy, lethargic and bruised, but alive. Daisy reached her arm up to May in a silent, grateful question. Without a second of hesitation, Melinda gathered her up into a hug, and laugh-cried into her shoulder. " _Hell_ , Dais."

"Thank god," Sousa said behind the two of them. Melinda let go of Daisy, giving her a meaningful look before moving away so the rest of the team could rejoice over Daisy's resurrection.

She found herself sitting a little away from the group, breathless and dizzy but happy beyond measure. After Phil embraced Daisy, he moved over to Melinda, sitting next to her and smiling at the celebration in front of them. 

"You're smiling, you know that?" He said softly, looking over at her with blue eyes that made her dizzy.

"Yeah, and?" she replied.

"Mel." Phil sounded amused. "You're smiling. For real, and you're not touching anybody."

Melinda stared at him. She opened her mouth to say she was feeding off of the room, no contact, when she realize that the blinding joy in her was bubbling up from _within her_. "Phil," She said, her voice a little strangled.

"Whatever you did, I think you got your emotions back," Phil said, chuckling happily at her look of bewilderment and excitement. The pure love in his face made May stutter as she tried to form a thought process.

"Phil," she said, realizing that all of her love for him was back. He was a robot, an advanced chronicom, but he still felt like others. He still protected her instinctively during the explosions in the lighthouse. " _Phil_ ," she repeated and leapt at him, hugging him tightly and burying her face in his shoulder. He clutched her like they'd never embraced before.

"I love you," she said, before realizing maybe now wasn't the best time to admit that. The sudden rush of emotions had her irrational, and she tensed before she felt him running his fingers through her hair, a familiar motion that _her_ Phil used to do. She relaxed into his embrace, giggling like- ugh, like a child.

"Aw. You giggled," Phil said with a chuckle, before receiving a hard poke in the shoulder. "Sorry, Lin," he said, pulling away a little to look at her with those earnest, dorky eyes- and then she couldn't hold it in anymore. She shot fowards, kissing him deeply, smiling into his lips when Phil responded just as passionately.

Somebody screamed behind them and they pulled away in alarm, checking for danger with the team.

"Freaking finally!" Daisy cried, grinning and leaning on Sousa for support. "Took you long enough."

May rolled her eyes, relaxing. "I should say the same for you two," she replied. "Heard from Mack what happened on the Zephyr."

Daisy and Daniel whirled around to look at the Director, who shrugged good-naturedly. "It was _impressive_ ," was all he muttered, receiving a light slap from Elena, who was chuckling.

The joy in the group was infectious, and they were all giddy and happy like they'd never felt. They were _finally_ okay, and _together_.

"Alya!" Jemma gasped. "You need to meet her."

They all stared at her in confusion, and then what she said earlier finally registered in Melinda's mind and she laughed. "A _child_? I'm so happy for you two!" She said, prompting another round of tearful hugs and another scream from Daisy, who found out Alya's name honored her. 

"We'll be okay," Coulson whispered later, sitting with her in the lab. Melinda leaned against him as they got the Zephyr ready to take off. "Promise."

"I know," she responded with a smile, watching as Daisy played with her niece, Kora, Piper and Flint, who they'd picked up already. "We'll be fine together."

"Screw Sybil's percentages," Coulson remarked.

Melinda nodded against him, agreeing. "Screw her. Punching her was fun."

"And that little 'I'm the calvary' bit? Looked great," he complimented.

She laughed. "Yeah, thank you."

"You saved the girl this time, Melinda," he said against her. "You saved her."

"We all did. We all saved each other."

"Wow. Didn't think getting your emotions back meant becoming cheesy," he chuckled, and she frowned and pinched him. "It's true."

"Shut up," she murmured, leaning her head back against his shoulder, feeling the rumble of the Zephyr below them as they took off into a new chapter of their lives: focusing on family.

**Author's Note:**

> i have... feelings
> 
> Comments and Kudos make my day!!


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